Sparrow's Flight
by PiressVox
Summary: His crew is dead. His ship destroyed. He knows what he must do. All his life has led up to this. Spoilers for DMC.


Yay! My latest fanfic. It took me forever to type it up- I handwrite everything first. Don't ask me why, I just do. Anyway, here it is. Thanks to Choccie, for the inspiration.

Title: Sparrow's Flight a.k.a Abandon Ship

Disclaimer: You know the drill- not mine, Disney's

Summary: Oh, just read it, please

"Abandon ship"

For a split second, jack wondered whether those words had really come from his lips. And by the frozen expression of shock around him, the others were thinking the same thing

Who was this man, who had just, with such calm confidence and assuredness, told them to give up on saving _The Black Pearl_?

It couldn't be Jack Sparrow. The Jack they knew loved his ship above all else. He knew every inch of her as intimately as a lover. This was the ship he had spent the better part of 10 years chasing around the Caribbean, desperate to reclaim her. The ship he proudly boasted to be the fastest ever built. The ship he cared for like his only child.

And he was telling them to abandon it?

That was when the crew- what was left of it- realised just how serious the situation was. Jack knew the Kraken was not going to give up. Top it, the explosion was but a scratch, an annoying itch. Despite their best efforts, the Kraken would be back. I would be back soon, and it would be very angry indeed.

Jack seemed to know the only chance they had was getting to land, fast. And that meant leaving the _Pearl_ behind.

He thrust the gun into Gibbs' hands. "Into the longboat"

There was a long silence. Sparrow could practically hear the cogs turning in their minds as they tried to make sens eof what was going on.

Gibbs was fearing for his captain's sanity. Whatever sanity he had left. Inside he knew Jack was right, but he didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to give up.

"But Jack…" he managed to get out. "…The _Pearl"_

Jack surveyed the damage around him. His beloved _Pearl_ was nearly ruined beyond repair. The foul beats had crushed the mizzenmast to splinters. Half the railing was missing. Great hole shad been torn in the sides. He could see right through what had once been the captain's quarters, his home. Shards of wood, shreds of sail and chinks of burning Kraken flesh littered the deck.

Jack's heart was breaking, but he knew there was no hope of the _Pearl _making it through this.

"She's only a ship, mate" he sighed.

Oh, but she wasn't. She was so much more than "just a ship". The _Pearl_ was the stuff of legend. Such fantastic stories were told of her that many believed she couldn't exist. Jack and the _Pearl_ had been through a lot together. He truly loved that ship. Sometimes he thought that the ship knew that and that it loved him as well. He'd been captain of the _Pearl_ for most of his pirate career, and she'd been good to him. She'd led him to the best targets, helped him slip through the nets of the Royal Navy countless times. She'd gotten him through every storm, in and out of every port, across every sea. When he was separated from her, she had waited, and she had been there when he'd returned. She was more faithful than any woman could ever be.

She was so much more than a ship

Pintel and Ragetti- it was only now that Jack started to wonder how on Earth they'd escaped from jail- were gazing sceptically across the great expanse of water between the ship and the distant shores of safety.

"That's a lot of open water" muttered Pintel

Ragetti nodded, wide-eyed. "That's a lot of water" he echoed.

William looked up, bitter determination glinting in his dark eyes. "We have to try" he said. "We can get away while it takes down the _Pearl_"

Jack flinched. He knew the _Pearl_ was going down, but really, did people have to keep saying it? They weren't making this any easier. He remained silent, not able to bring himself to look at any of them.

'_Ladies and gents, gather round' _he thought. _'Here be a rare sight. Captain Jack Sparrow, against his better judgement, doing the right thing'_

Behind him, Gibbs was nodding. "Abandon ship" he said, confirming Jack's order. "Abandon ship or abandon hope"

He heard movement as the others gathered what they could salvage from the wreckage around them and prepared to flee the doomed vessel.

Calloused hands slid over highly polished wood, an almost-caress. _"I'm so sorry" _he thought. _"I never wanted it to end like this" _He felt he was betraying the ship that had treated him so well overt the years.

It suddenly dawned on him that he was talking to a hunk of splintered wood. The _Pearl's _spirit had already died.

"Forgive me"

He was being watched. He could feel it. Turning, he found Elizabeth standing there, staring at him, he eyes filled with sadness, pain and…regret. As if she knew something Jack didn't.

"_Lizzie dear," _he thought. _"Do me a favour? Stop teasing me"_

Over the time she had been on his ship, Jack had watched Elizabeth Swann prance around in her pirate get-up, driving him crazy. She was beautiful, he admit it. Jack had never been able to resist anything shiny, and 'Lizbeth was the prettiest little bit of shine he'd ever seen.

But she was someone else's bit of shine.

While Jack admired Elizabeth, maybe even loved her, he couldn't help but think of her badly sometimes. She had a good thing with William. Hell, a great thing. He was totally devoted to her. Loved her with everything he was. And while he couldn't offer her a life of luxury, he could give her stability, comfort and absolute loyalty.

And here she was, dancing around in front of Jack. She was like fresh chunk of meat dangling just outside the lion's reach. Her flirting was painfully obvious. There had been times when Jack had come dangerously close to giving into temptation. But each time, the thought of facing her fiancé's wrath had stopped him. Will would slice him into a million piece if he touched her

Castrate him. _Then_ dice him. Then he'd probably burn the pieces.

Besides, Will Turner was one of his best friends. He was a pirate, yes, but he would never go so low as to steal a mate's girl

"_Lizzie, darling_" he pleaded in his mind. _"Don't speak. Don't do anything. Don't even look at me. Just get in the longboat, get out of here and go marry William. PLEASE!"_

But seeing as Elizabeth wasn't a mind-reader, she didn't hear his silent please and continued to gaze at him.

"Thank you, Jack" she said softly.

The pirate smiled bitter-sweetly. "We're not free yet, luv"

He really hoped that would get rid of her. He didn't want to betray Will by giving into her. Besides this was really not the time or the place.

But she stayed.

Moving slowly, torturously slow, she came toward him, demanding he meet her eyes.

"You came back" she said, voice barely more than a whisper. "I always knew you were a good man"

Damn her for being right. Why did he have to go and develop conscious _now_? It was really annoying and dreadfully inconvenient.

But now Elizabeth was really far to close to him. He could smell her sweet, smoky scent, feel her short, hot breaths on his neck, practically taste her

Damn her. Damn her to hell

He wanted her to move away. He wanted her to stay this close. Lord, he didn't know what he wanted!

Then suddenly, she was kissing him. Her soft lips against his chapped ones, hungry for him, tasting him, tongue exploring every inch of his mouth. For a long moment, he stood completely still, shocked.

"_Women"_ Jack thought. "_They always make things way to complicated_"

Then, throwing his reservation to the wind, he kissed back.

"_I'm enjoying this far too much" _he told himself. "_I'm a pirate. Pirates do not fall in love_"

He wanted the best for Elizabeth. He couldn't give her that. Jack made no guarantees. All he could offer the angel was a lifetime of running from the law, constant danger and a great likelihood of ending up dead in a noose. Yet here he was, kissing her more passionately and truthfully than he'd ever kissed a woman, ever.

She pushed him back against the mast, the kiss intensifying. Jack wanted to stay that way forever, and at the same time, wanted it to end.

Why was he so confused?

A sudden click broke through the red haze of passion that had descended on his mind.

Lizzie pulled away from him.

She fastened the shackle on his wrist, never looking away from his eyes.

And suddenly, he wasn't confused anymore. It all made sense. The red fog dissipated, leaving perfect clarity.

Elizabeth didn't love him. She might not have even wanted to kiss him. She had merely been using him. She may have wanted him, but she didn't truly love him. If she did, she would never have done this.

"It's after you, not the ship" she whispered, voice cracking with emotion. "It's not us"

He simply continued to stare at her, his dark, chocolaty eyes accusatory. _Traitor_, they seemed to say. _I called you my friend_

"This is the only way, don't you see?" She spoke with desperation. She was trying to convince herself, not Jack. She needed to tell herself what she was doing was justified.

But she _was_ right. He was the one with the great ugly Black Spot on his hand, not the ship. Even if the Kraken claimed the _Pearl_, it wouldn't give up until it had him. There was no where he could go to escape it. The moment he went back to sea, it would find him.

It escaped him now why he had been stupid enough to make that stupid deal with stupid Davy-bloody-Jones all those years ago. Bootstrap had been right. He wouldn't be able to use his charming silver tongue and talk his way out of this one. The Kraken would come. He would die today.

It wasn't Elizabeth's fault. She had only taken away the option of running, forcing him to face his inevitable fate now.

"I'm not sorry" she rasped, her voice clearly telling him she was. She hated doing this. She hated herself for doing it. But she knew she had to. She forced herself to remember that Jack's sacrifice would save the other. Save Will

So why did it feel so terribly wrong?

Because she did have feelings for him. In her eyes, Will was love and Jack was passion, and she didn't know which she wanted

But she did know she wanted to survive. At the moment, if that meant Jack dying, so be it

She would give herself time to regret and grieve later.

Jack stared her down, a melancholy smile playing on his lips. Elizabeth, one of his closest, most trusted friends, had betrayed him, condemned him.

And he wasn't angry.

"_I've taught her well_" he thought, with a hint of pride

And as she gazed at him, trembling, he whispered one word.

"Pirate"

She drew a tiny gasp, realising he was right. That hit hard. Despite her fascination with pirates, she'd never wanted to be one. And now- now she knew she was. How else could she have so easily turned on Jack?

Unable to face his accusatory stare any longer, Elizabeth turned and fled, running for the longboat.

And now it was the way it had started. Just Jack and the _Pearl_.

He stood, chained to the mast, watching Elizabeth's retreating back, still smiling. As she disappeared over the side of the ship, he shook himself back to the present.

First thing first- get out of the chains

He knew he was doomed. He wasn't trying to escape his fate. But he was Jack Sparrow. If he was going down, it would be on his own terms. Not shackled to his ship, powerless, unable to fight. That wasn't how his life was meant to end.

Unfortunately, whoever had made these shackles had made them well. The chain wasn't going to break any time soon, and the lock wasn't about to yield just because he wanted to get out. Jack proceeded to shake the chain, pulling and twisting it every way he could, throwing all his weight against it.

He soon realised all he was succeeding in was getting a very sore wrist and building his frustration

"BuggerbuggerbuggerbuggerbuggerbuggerBUGGER!"

Fact of the matter- his hand was too big to squeeze through the cuff.

Unless…

A lantern lay forgotten in the wreckage nearby. Lantern…oil…slippery…

Idea.

Jack pulled against his restraints, desperately trying to reach the lantern. But it was just outside his reach, so close, yet so very far

Bugger! Things just kept getting better, didn't they?

Wait…

Jack had his second brilliant idea in the past minute. It was a shame no one had been there to witness it.

Drawing his sword, he reached out toward the lantern again, and just managed to slip the blade through the handle.

SUCCESS!

He lifted the lantern, swung his sword around and smashed the glass against the mast. Quickly, he swung it back around to let the oil spill out onto his hand.

He was short of time, and he knew it,. Very, very soon, Jones' leviathan would be back from licking its wound, its temper flared, eager to taste pirate flesh.

He slipped his many rings around to face his palm, forcing his hand through the cuff, gritting his teeth against the white hot pain that seared through his arm as his fingers bent in directions they really weren't designed to.

Casting a quick glance out to sea, he saw the longboat moving slowly toward shore, away from the doomed ship and its doomed captain. He could just make out Ragetti and Pintel rowing, Cotton, Marty and Gibbs next to them, and closest to him, Will and Elizabeth, staring back at the ship.

He turned away, focusing again on freeing his hand. There was no point watching them escape. He'd had his chance at freedom and he'd passed it up to return to the ship and his friends.

Stupid compass. It hadn't pointed at the ship at all. It had known what he wanted- he wanted to live. The compass had merely told him what his heart already know. What he wanted most was the freedom and safety of the island in the distance.

Jack didn't know why he'd chosen that moment to suddenly be noble and heroic. Why did he have to choose _that_ moment to do the right thing? But he couldn't undo it. For once, he'd though of others before himself, and now he was paying the price.

His hand finally slipped free. He allowed himself a small triumphant smile

Very hot breath on the back of his neck made the smile slip from his handsome features.

Taking a deep breath, he turned.

Jack found himself standing face-to-very-sharp-teeth with the Kraken.

Very, _very_, sharp teeth.

And there were _lots_ of them. Rows upon rows of teeth. The vile creature seemed to be nothing but tentacles and teeth!

Yep. Defiantly wouldn't be able to talk his way out of this one. If the giant squid thingy even had ears, Jack highly doubted it would be in the mood for chit-chat.

He was right

One moment he was staring at the mouth of a rather annoyed sea monster, the next said sea monster was roaring at him, a fitting expression of it's anger.

All things considered, Jack thought he would probably be just as annoyed if someone had tried to barbeque him

Oh. Wait. Someone had

"_I know how you feel, mate"_ he thought

However, any connection he felt with the monster was soon lost. Because it was then the Kraken decided to cover him with sticky, gooey, yellowish gunk.

"_Nice_"

He jammed his eyes shut against the disgusting goo, not keen for the icky substance to get inside his body in any way- whatever it was it really didn't look tasty

The deafening roar finally ended. Jack peeked out under his eyelashes, cautious, just in case it decided to start its goo-attack again.

When it didn't, Jack eyed the Kraken dubiously. "_That's it?_" he thought, remembering the many tales he had heard that spoke of the terror of the Kraken, the men it had killed, the horrible stench of its breath

Facing it all now, the Kraken seemed like nothing more than an overgrown octopus who'd been given big teeth and tentacles to play with.

"Not so bad"

He could have sworn the Kraken gave an offended "_Humph_"

Glancing down at his now goo-covered self, something caught Jack's eye. Something he thought he'd never see again.

His hat.

Giving a small gasp of joy, he picked it up and shook the goop off it. Jack really hated to think what it had been through in the time since he'd lost it.

Jamming it back on his head, Jack felt his true self once again. He was the _Pearl's_ captain, and if the ship was going down, he would go down with it.

Jack had faced death many times before. The first time is the worst. He had been scared- trapped in the brig of an enemy ship for weeks, starving, slowly fading away. He'd come horribly close to taking his own life. That was the first time he'd been faced ith the very real possibility of death, either at his own hand or someone else's. And that was the time he'd come to terms with it. Fact was he was going to die someday. Nothing and nobody could stop that. Once he'd accepted that, nothing had ever really scared him again.

And so it was that Jack Sparrow drew his sword and looked death in the eye- er, teeth- with a smile on his lips and a glint in his eye.

"Hello, Beastie"

The Kraken took its cue

Jack charged

Sword raised, the rows of teeth descended on him, surrounding him, crushing his ship beneath him, until all he knew was darkness and silence and then…nothing

As he had always imagined he would, Jack had gone down on his own terms.

In the distant longboat, seven figures watch as the _Pearl _was crushed and dragged below the surface, leaving clear, calm water behind. They watch as a man dear to them all meets his glorious end.

Aboard the _Flying Dutchman_, Davy Jones shuts his telescope with a satisfied smirk. "Jack Sparrow" he says evilly. "Our debt is settled"

"Captain goes down with his ship" mutters a crewman

"Turns out not even Jack Sparrow can best the devil" Maccus agrees

But could he…?

"Open the chest!" roars Jones

In a decaying hut on the Pantano River, Tia Dalma dropped her crab claws suddenly and clutched her heart. "So" she whispered. "It is done"

Looking to the adjoining room, she calls out. "Hector! Your services may be required earlier than we had expected"

Hector Barbossa looks up from Jack, his pet monkey, and smiles

In a richly decorated office on the faraway shore of Port Royal, Lord Cutler Beckett stares down a man who used to be a Commodore in the Royal Navy. Neither know of the Kraken's attack of jack Sparrow's fall, but both will be affected by it.

"Do you have the compass?"

The scruffy former-Commodore smiles. "Better" he says. "The heart of Davy Jones"

James Norrington, with certain smugness, present a pulsating sack to the Lord, who watches it, mystified.

Back in the longboat, the remaining crew of _The Black Pearl_ make slow progress to Tia Dalma's hut. They don't know where else to go

William Turner glances at his fiancée, who hasn't said a word in hours. If only she knew that he'd seen her with him. With the _Pearl_ gone, he had no chance of saving his father. He had lost Jack, who might as well have been his brother. And now Elizabeth was slipping away too. His life was crumbling around him.

Elizabeth Swann sits silent, gazing at the slow-moving river. She feels terrible. Today, she's betrayed and condemned the two men she cared most for. She's stabbed Jack in the back and left him for dead. She's double-crossed Will, her fiancé, by kissing jack, and if Will knew, it would destroy him. He wouldn't survive. She's never been more confused.

These are the stories Jack Sparrow left before their final chapters could be written. And though he may be gone, the stories are far from over.

After all, who has the power to stop the Sparrow's flight?


End file.
